With the football team at the Orange Bowl and the women's basketball team snapping UConn's historic winning streak, men's hoops had a tough act to follow at Maples Pavilion.

Far from being intimidated, the Cardinal turned in their own impressive performance -- at Cal's expense.

"When you see the programs do as well as they're doing," Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said, "the excitement and energy ... is a good thing for us. All the kids want to leave their mark on this program."

Dawkins' club left its mark in the second half of its conference opener, shooting a sizzling 72.2-percent after intermission to turn a 38-34 lead into a 82-68 thumping.

The Bears (7-6, 0-1 in the Pac-10) surrendered a season-high in points to a Stanford team that came in averaging just 66.5 per game.

"We don't give up 82 points and expect to win," Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. "We just couldn't get stops. They kind of had their way with us ... that's just not gonna work for us."

Junior guard Jeremy Green was the first Cardinal player to go off on the Bears, knocking down four first-half threes and racking up 14 of his 21 points in the opening 20 minutes.

Yet, after intermission, he became the least of Cal's worries.

Trailing 48-43, at the 13:41 mark, the Bears let Stanford (8-4, 1-0) take control with a 16-5 run over the next five minutes. The Cardinal's spurt was keyed by a pair of 3-pointers from freshman Anthony Brown and four points from Powell, who poured in 13 of his 20 after halftime.

A 6-foot-9 freshman, Powell caused problems all evening for Harper Kamp -- showing a nice mid-range touch and playing effectively in the post.

"I didn't probably prepare for him specifically as much as I should have," said Kamp, who paced the Bears with 16 points on the evening. "He was able to jump up and knocked own some jumpers ... that's a tough guard."

"He's quick with the ball, he jumps, and we weren't able to get physical with him," Montgomery said of Powell. "He pretty much just took us."

Despite shooting 51-percent from the field, the Bears trailed by as many as 17 in the second half and pulled to within single digits just once after the 11-minute mark. Markhuri Sanders-Frison 14 points and nine rebounds before fouling out late in the game, while Gary Franklin made four 3-pointers to chip in 15 off the bench.

Yet, Cal's offense was hampered by 16 turnovers; during Stanford's second-half run, which included five straight baskets, the Bears gave the ball up on five of eight possessions. Cal also shot just 11-of-19 from the free-throw line.

"We've gotta grow up," Montgomery said. "We gotta get more physical, we gotta make good decisions."

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